Tech Trends

Slow News Month

August is traditionally a slow month for technology news. It’s too early to begin the announcements for the 4th quarter holiday season, but too late for the back-to-school announcements. Generally speaking, there’s just not a lot to talk about in technology in August.
Well, this year shot that...

Opposites Attract

A quick question: What is the opposite of librarianship? What’s the first thing that comes to mind? I can imagine some of you thinking that the Web is the opposite of librarianship. Perhaps for some of you, tagging came to mind because it’s so uncontrolled and messy. Or perhaps Amazon's Kindle is the opposite of librarianship, as it tries to create an instantaneous celestial bookstore. ...

Cloud Computing is the New [Fill in the blank]

I was reading this post on Cloud Computing from the TechCrunch blog earlier today. This post includes some video from a recent Cloud Computing event that they held. Watch it and you'll see various experts and industry leaders singing the praises of cloud computing both on its technical merits and on the business innovation they feel it will bring. As this post argues, it all boils down to the...

The G Drive and Cloud Computing

There has been a lot of talk recently about Google's newest big development, the G Drive. If you haven't heard, the G Drive is a giant, Google driven file storage system that will essentially allow anyone to access a giant hard drive through the web. Rather than worry about transporting your files from your laptop or desktop, you would simply be able to store just about anything you want (with...

Interview With OITP Director Alan Inouye

With our January issue of Library Technology Reports focusing on funding your technology in a tough economy, I figured it would make sense to broaden my perspective on the issue by talking some additional experts. Over the past couple of months, I had the pleasure of conducting an online interview with Alan Inouye, Director of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy, which serves the...

WorldCat Mobile--Another Major Mobile Web Development

Hot on the heels of the launch of the D.C. Public Library's iPhone application, WorldCat Mobile is now giving users access to over 10,000 libraries in the palm of their hands:
A very long time ago (2005! gasp!), I wished for all the library content in the world to fit in your pocket. We're a whole lot closer to that now, with the launch of the new WorldCat mobile pilot. The six month-long...

Technology: The Year in Review

In the spirit of the bazillion other year-end lists you will see over the coming weeks, I decided to list my Top 5 Most Influential Technologies of the year. These are the technologies that I think librarians need to be aware of, examine, and find uses for in their library. Not all of these started this year, but 2008 was the year they broke out and became necessities in many people's lives.
#...

As Print Struggles, Twitter Flourishes

It's no secret that these are tough times for the publishing industry. We've been discussing the precarious position of the publishing industry for some time now, and the current economic crisis certainly isn't making things any easier. Meanwhile, new, mostly free Web 2.0 technology is flourishing, its popularity growing at an astonishing rate.
Stephen's Lighthouse has some fantastic coverage of...

Mancos PL Builds Green

Second Life is good for a lot of things. Professional networking is one of them. I have met and worked with so many librarians in Second Life that I probably never would have met if I had confined my professional activities to real life. A few months ago I met Plautia Corvale, the avatar of Victoria Petersen, the Technology Manager of the Mancos Public Library in Colorado. We are, along with...

Internet Librarian 2008

There could hardly be a nicer conference location than Monterey, CA in the Fall. The weather is gorgeous, the town is walkable, and there is a plethora of tourist activities ranging from the phenomenal Monterey Aquarium to the local beaches. So to say that I spent my days at Internet Librarian 2008 sitting in hotel conference rooms should give you some idea of the speakers and the programs that...

Dispatch From the LITA Forum

Greetings from Cincinnati, the Queen City! After my bad flight experience in Anaheim, it was nice to be able to hop in the car and head to a conference that’s just a few hours away from home in a city that I know quite well (my fiancé grew up here, so I’ve been here a lot).
For those of you who might have experienced the accommodating but sterile environment at annual, LITA is a nice change of...